Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin (21 January 1869-30 December 1916) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and gained considerable influence at his court. His alleged sexual relationships with Czarina Alix of Hesse and by Rhine and her daughters, as well as Russia's defeats in World War I under the watch of Czarina Alexandra and Rasputin, led to his assassination on 30 December 1916 by a group of conservative noblemen.

Biography
Grigori Rasputin was born in Pokrovskoye, Siberia, Russian Empire in 1869, the son of a peasant, and he claimed to have mystical healing powers. He came to live at the tsarist court in 1907. His beneficial treatment of the hemophiliac crown prince Alexei won him a disastrous hold over Tsarina Alexandra, an influence which increased when her husband Nicholas II of Russia left the court to command the Imperial Russian Army in 1915 during World War I. Rasputin and the Tsarina were thought to be lovers, and together they virtually ruled Rusia, dismissing all of the more liberal ministers. The resulting government inefficiency was responsible to a great degree for the failure to get adequate supplies to the Tsar and the army. Rasputin's drinking habits and sexual excesses discredited the court and in December 1916 he was murdered by a group of noblemen led by Prince Felix Yusupov. He was invited to visit Yusupov's home, and he survived three glasses of poisoned wine before being shot several times and thrown into the Malaya Nevka River.